Despite being widespread and well recorded over most of England and
lowland Wales, Nottinghamshire has very few records of this large and
distinctive solitary Bee, but it is certainly increasing its UK and
Nottinghamshire range. It derives its common name from its habit of
scraping the hairs off the leaves of plants such as Lambs-ear
Stachys byzantina, which it uses to line the cells of its nest.
Like other Megachile species, the nests are built inside
natural holes, hollow canes and artificial bee houses etc. A.
manicatum really should be more commonly recorded in
Nottinghamshire, but the recording of Hymenoptera in Nottinghamshire
continues to be relatively little. Grateful thanks go to David Shaw
(upper photographs) Duncan Lyon (middle photographs) and Sandra Parkin
(lower photographs) for kindly
providing their photographs to illustrate this species. |